Badwolf

Cerise (4)

Ramona was a quicker learner than I'd expected. She'd already memorized how to get back to the dorm from most places in the school, and had already recruited Justine Dancer, Faybelle Thorn and Rosabella Beauty as friends, somehow.

She knew lots about my life, too, like where I liked to sit at mealtime, who I hung out with and when, and what classes I had more trouble in than others. She had opinions on all my friends. My boyfriend is hot but incredibly stupid and entitled, she'd said. His sister is a little smarter but manages to make even stupider decisions, she'd said. She's even commented that she thought that Raven's rebel movement was lame and a dramatic cry for attention.

It also didn't take her long to figure out that the Wolf destiny had basically been handed to her. "All this time I thought I'd actually have to compete for it," she'd said. "Your wolf must be more pathetic than I thought."

I'd just waved her away, too fed up to say anything back.

And when Friday night rolled around, she was out and busy, while I stayed back at the dorm, planless as usual. I was used to and thankful for having persistently empty Friday night schedules- most nights, I sat listening to music, reading or doing exercises in my room, normally with a textbook or two open though I never actually bothered to look their way.

When Darling came home from whatever fun things she'd have planned, that's when I'd be "productive"- Darling and I chipped away at our must-watch movies and Mirror Network programs list on Friday nights. And sometime after Darling fell asleep, I routinely went for a midnight run in the deep blue-black night with only the glimmer of the moon and my wolf senses to look out for me. I felt the heightened senses come alive as if I could shift into my wolf form, but I didn't. I never did. I wondered if I'd lost the ability entirely, as if Ramona inherited more of my father's genes than I.

What my mind just couldn't grasp was how she'd just arrived and was already more popular in my school than me. I never expect to be popular in any aspect of the word despite being in a relationship with the school's most popular guy. It's between the two of us, and it's never been for the popularity benefit. I don't want it, even. It wasn't natural to me. So how was it natural to Ramona? All these years I hadn't known her, and that's what I'd missed? Ramona had become the talk of the school instantly- she was the class's only (known) resident werewolf and the only known heir to the Alpha Badwolf title. Following that logic, she should grow to become the most powerful werewolf this generation would see. She'd always had more wolffish tendencies than I did, all our lives- she wasn't concerned at all with table manners, didn't worry about people becoming fearful of her, and completely embraced the mystery and potential bloodlust that came with the werewolf genetics. There was just one roadblock keeping her from claiming head Badwolf status when our father passed- she hadn't yet been able to change forms, which is one of the most important factors to determining a wolf's status in the pack because of its strong indication of power and control.

Tonight, as finals quickly approached, I'd escaped from my dorm to my dad's office to assist in staying as on-task as possible. I sat at the desk, staring at a precrownculus worksheet. Considering how the studying was going, I decided I'd need to enlist some help soon if I planned to pass the exam.

A relatively dreary song tinkled from the headphones in my ears and I suddenly could not keep my eyes from involuntarily closing,  each time I was unsuccessful and forced their reopening they dripped with overworked tears. They slowly pulled to a close and shot open again, wide as I blinked, and looked up to lock with a pair of golden ones gleaming amongst the darkness just outside the open window.

The wolf-girl.

I sighed long and hard, pushing away from the desk where I'd been "studying". I followed along the outside of the desk to the windowsill, pushing it open with two muscled but exhausted arms.

The eyes narrowed, but did not move. Though the shadows engulfed her entirely, I knew it was the wolf girl.

I smiled to her from my side of the window screen. The moonlight that barely illuminated some of the courtyard glinted off my teeth, which sharpened. My silver eyes goldened, and I could suddenly smell the girl's foresty, earthy smell from here.

"What's the matter? Feel threatened?" I called.

The wolf girl shuddered as my mind wandered onto the thought that a wolf as accustomed as the girl could willingly shift forms. I had yet to be successful, but it sure did help that Ramona couldn't either, though I had no doubt in my mind that Ramona was about to cross that threshold. She could possess the ability incredibly soon... I would not.

"Where's she?" The wolf girl said, ironically sounding less like the wolf in her and more like the girl as she spoke the words.

I widened my wild smile. "Why don't you go and find her?"

The wolf girl let out the tiniest squeak. She certainly wasn't about to take my suggestion and run with it. Just as I'd guessed, the girl violently shook her head. She didn't seem scared of Ramona, but scared of something, still. But what?

I shrugged and placed my arms on the window pane. I began to close it as I called to the young wolf-child, "guess you're out of luck then."

"No," she growled.

I'd almost entirely shut her out when she quietly, very humanly, added a pathetic "please."

I nudged the window back open again and waited for her to continue or make a move, but she didn't. She only held her golden gaze on my own for ages.

An idea occurred to me, and I made a particularly risky choice that I knew I could grow to regret in the near future.

"Would you like to go for a run?"